


Hogwarts

by zephsomething



Series: Surviving the War [34]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-12 22:36:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21233696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zephsomething/pseuds/zephsomething
Summary: September first, Harry's first year of teaching.





	Hogwarts

**Author's Note:**

> Y'all I'm so close to finally getting to the part that started this whole damn project I'm so excited.

Harry had sent in his required books to McGonagall, _Practical Defensive Magic and Its Use Against the Dark Arts_, technically it was a set of books but he figured as Gilderoy had been allowed to assign a whole set so could he. Today however, he was actually going back to Hogwarts for the first time since The Battle. He apparated to just outside the gates and as he looked up at the castle it didn’t feel like four years since he’d been here, it felt a great deal more like days.

As he walked up the long road to the castle, he noticed how most of it looked new, or at least not as ancient as it had when he was here as a student. The castle felt quiet as he walked through and up to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. On the way there he spotted Ms Norris glaring at him from behind a statue and couldn’t help the grin that popped onto his face.

“I’m a teacher now, there’s nothing you can do about that.” He laughed and she seemed to glare at him before stalking off.

As he went up the stairs at the back of the defense against the dark arts room and opened the door to the office he paused. He’d been in here with so many teachers it was strange to see it empty. It held no artifacts, no smiling portraits, technicolor cats, pink frills, neat creatures in tanks, or mirrors with frosted glass. He let out a long breath before walking through the doorway.

First thing he did was shove the desk back and diagonal, so that he could see the quidditch pitch through the back window if he leaned a little but it was technically still facing the door. Then he set up a bookshelf beside the door, the first thing onto it was his own battered _Practical Defensive Magic and Its Use Against the Dark Arts_ set, the rest of the shelves were soon filled with dozens of other books on the subject he’d picked up over the years. When he was done he set his old sneakascopes on one of the shelves, one cracked and the other battered. Quills, ink, parchment, and knickknacks went onto his desk. A photo someone had snapped of him, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione at their wedding went up behind his desk. A photo of Ginny in her quidditch robes went onto his desk and the extra copy of Colin and Dennis’ book he’d bought went onto the bookshelf with his other books.

“I like what you’ve done with the place.” Harry turned to see McGonagall standing in the doorway, sensible bun and robes as perfectly in place as always.

“Hello professor.” He nodded and dusted his hands off on his jeans. At some point he’d hung his cloak by the door leaving him in just jeans and a old faded Weird Sisters t-shirt. “Though I suppose it’s headmistress now.”

“I just came to discuss the rules with you.” Her mouth twitched in what was very nearly a smile. “I know you’re prone to forgetting them.”

“To be fair professor, I was only trying to do the right thing.” He grinned back at her.

“I find myself suddenly quite glad that Longbottom is the head of Gryffindor house.” Despite her tired sort of tone her smile remained as she handed him a roll of parchment. “These are all the rules you will know, I underlined the ones you absolutely must follow.”

“Thanks.” Harry chuckled as he unrolled it and put it down on his desk. “I’ll read it first thing.”

“I also added some of the more major changes I’ve made to the points system and detentions,” she tapped the bottom of the parchment with her wand. “As you are not head of house few of them apply to you but I figured you’d be interested.”

“Bet people sent you howlers about that one.” He didn’t need to see the changes to know that people would have hated them, regardless of what changed there was always someone who despised it.

“True but unless Kingsley decides he really wants to try and interfere at Hogwarts it doesn’t matter how much they yell.” The smile on her face was nowhere near kind and Harry knew exactly who she was thinking about.

“I somehow doubt that’ll happen again anytime soon.”

“We can only hope.” She nodded and headed towards the door. In the doorway she paused and looked back at him. “And Potter?”

“Yes professor?” He looked up from the parchment, expecting a warning or possibly a reminder to stay out of trouble.

“This is a good choice for books.” She tapped the battered spines of his copies. “Well done.”

“Thank you.” His grin widened, McGonagall never gave praise unless it had been earned. Then she nodded and left, leaving the door open and empty as it had been before.

Once she left he pulled out the dozen or so awards he’d gotten during his few years as an auror and put them up around the photo from his wedding. The last thing to go up was the perch for his owl, a lovely tawny girl he’d bought once the owl shop in Diagon Alley had reopened. He’d named her Chickadee but she almost exclusively answered to ‘Dee. The only reason her perch was last and not first was because she was currently flying from home to Hogwarts. Like most animals she was none too fond of apparating.

Once he was well and truly done setting up his office he left, closing the door on his way out, and headed the long way around and out of the castle. As he walked through the winding halls and detoured through secret passages he tried to convince himself it wasn’t a patrol. It almost worked until he got outside and did a full lap around the boundaries of hogwarts, right along the wards, skirting around the very edges of the forest, and came to a stop in front of the greenhouses.

Inside of the second one he could see Neville bent over a piece of paper as a plant beside him pulsed like it was trying to get his attention. When it started shaking Neville tapped it gently with his wand and the thing shrank back to half the size it had been.

Harry knocked gently on the glass before walking in. As Neville looked up a smile spread across his face. Harry grinned back and gestured at the paper. “What are you doing?”

“I’m glad you took the job.” Neville smiled at him, looking calmer than Harry had ever seen him be during their own years at Hogwarts. Then he looked down at the paper and gave a small shrug. “It’s my list, of all the kids who need extra help.”

“Huh.” Harry walked forward to look at it and Neville stepped aside enough that he could.

“Like Sally Lee, she’s prone to sleeplessness so in her first year I had one of the older kids show her how to get to the kitchens. Silas Hart needs help with his studies but resents people noticing so in his second year I asked him and Isabella Page, she’s ahead in her studies but never seems to have friends, to stay behind and help me clean up the greenhouse after class. The two of them got on like a house fire.” He shook his head, something like regret flashing across his face. “They’re both fantastic in class now but they’re prone to accidental explosions if left unobserved for any amount of time.”

“You keep track of all of them?” Harry scanned the list, there had to be dozens of kids on there all of them sorted by year.

“Well I am head of Gryffindor.” Neville rubbed at the back of his neck.

“Only since last year.” Harry pointed out, the list went back at least four years. “And not all of these kids are Gryffindors.”

Neville looked at the list for a moment, like he was trying to decide something, before shrugging. “We started these during the occupation.”

“Oh.” Harry looked down at the list and suddenly understood why it had so many years worth of kids on it, why there were so many notes in Neville’s careful printing. Then he glanced out at the castle and the lake glittering beside it. The way the rising moon reflected on the lake. “Do you ever think about what it was like that first year? Getting on the boats to cross the lake to this huge castle?”

“I was worried they’d kick me out right away.” Neville nodded and Harry nodded along. “I didn’t think I had enough magic in me for Hogwarts.”

“Me too. Thought they’d figure out it had been a mistake and send me back to the Dursley’s.” Harry chuckled, thinking about how big it had seemed. “It got to seem like home so fast though.”

“It really did, didn’t it?” Neville agreed before gesturing towards the castle. “Speaking of, we’re going to be late for the welcome feast if we don’t get going.”

“Best get going then.” Harry grinned and followed Neville up the familiar path to the school. He had chocolate in one pocket, George and Ginny’s best Weasley tricks in another, and his wand tucked into his back pocket. This was as ready as he was ever going to be. 


End file.
